High Noon Rotary Club of Durango

District 5470

Club 1161

Meet at Doubletree Hotel

Time: 12:00 Noon

Thursdays

Newsletter: December 18, 2008

PROGRAM: Next two Thursdays: December 25^th and January 1^st, no meetings.

1/8/2009 Meeting: Mark Pearson with the San Juan Citizen’s Alliance on the new La Plata County Oil and Gas Regulations.

Fellow Rotarians:

• After the Pledge of Allegiance, Tami asked Boom to give us her weekly update and what a report it was as she had so many activities to report on, that she easily could have been our program. Notable ones were celebrating her 17^th birthday with a trip to Beau Joes, attending a party for Asian students, shoveling out Tami’s driveway (Boom was one of the few Thai citizens to have wielded a snow shovel this week), and playing a lot of fun games at parties she attended. Guest introductions included Chip Lile’s guest Mark Tucker, owner of Durango Rafting, Bob Salzer’s guest, grandson, Jeden, from Arizona, and Wayne Bedor’s guest and fiancée, Gayle Vandermast.

• Announcements: Tami thanked President Elect, Mark Prouty, for filling in for her last week while she was in Kauai, Hawaii. She also thanked the members who had done volunteer bell ringing at the north entrance of Wal Mart, arguably the coldest location in all of Durango for bell ringing. However, members rang with great enthusiasm and may even beat Kiwanis whose membership had the banana belt location at the south entrance to Wal Mart. Tami congratulated Wayne Bedor on becoming the President Elect, Elect for term 2010-2011. Tami also thanked Nancy Bennet, Niles Bruno and Frank Valen for being willing to run for President. Tami sadly reported that member Ted Robson, had to resign from the club for health reasons; however, the Board of Directors has asked Ted to continue on as an honorary member. Two cards were circulated for membership signatures, one Melisa Caskey whose dad just passed away and the other for Barb Holmes who is experiencing health issues.

• Sergeant of Arms: In the absence of SoA Tom Crabbe, Jill Carithers performed admirably as SoA pumping happy dollars from members’ wallets. Jill started with the happy $$$ for the two As that she earned, certainly not a surprise to us, in her masters degree program. She also announced that the Red Ball Express tickets are available to be picked up from her. Jeff Brown announced that his wife, Sari, just opened her “Yellow Carrot” catering operation in the North Main Street mini-mall which houses Zia Taqueria. Bob Chaput helpfully added that the mall also is the address for the “Fallen Angel” for those who aren’t familiar with the Zia Taqueria eatery. Thanks Bob. Dick Sullivan contributed 20 happy dollars for the privilege he and Mark Donahue had of delivering the Rotary dictionaries to the St. Columba school. Bob Salzer paid to announce his retirement after 35 years of service with the CSU Extension Service. This included his much heralded contributions to the development of life skills for literally thousands of La Plata County youth over 35 years with his leadership of the 4H activities. Niles Bruno was happy that his son recovered well from open heart surgery. Dan McCarthy is happy to be driving his family back to the east coast over the Christmas Holidays. Dan optimistically hopes he will follow the storm system on his trip and not be in it. What an optimist you are Dan!

• Program: Our club and the Kiwanis Club were again treated to the wonderful music made by the youth of the St. Columba Hand Bell Choir. It was all good; however, the two soloists really wowed us with the deft handling of the many, many, many bells in order to make wonderful Christmas music for us. Typically each student is responsible for three bells whereas the soloists had about 15 bells with which to perform. All the kids rated a 10 on their performance and the two clubs may have gotten a four or five for their singing prowess.

Upcoming : 1/8/2009 Meeting: Mark Pearson with the San Juan Citizen’s Alliance on the new La Plata County Oil and Gas Regulations.

• No meetings December 25^th and January 1^st.

The Four Way Test in everything we do and say:

ü Is it the truth?

ü Is it fair to all concerned?

ü Will it build good will and better friendships?

ü Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Yours in Rotary,

Editor

Wayne Bedor

waynebedor@yahoo.com